Category: Movie / Television

041523 • Thrift Store Finds

Ultimate Visual History of the World • This was published only two years ago, and doesn’t sell for less than twenty-five dollars on Amazon! It is a big, thick book, and a great deal.

History: The Definitive Visual Guide • I would guess this belonged to the same person who gave the Ultimate Visual History of the World to the ARC, as it is the same size. Both of them together were really heavy to hold with one arm while in the long check-out line!

Beethoven: Triple Concerto • I started listening to this concerto a year or two ago, so this was a good find. And the only disc of the day that was worth buying!

The Walking Dead: Season Four • I found season three on Blu-ray a week or two ago, so now I have the first four on Blu-ray. I stopped watching the show a few years ago as it lost its groove, but it was really good for a long time. Negan was the only plot-line that was worth anything by the time I stopped watching.

Dancing in the Dark • I haven’t read much on the Great Depression, but I mean to.

The Second World Wars • I’ve heard Victor Davis Hanson a lot here and there, and I really like his take on things. This is a very recent book, 2017, I think, so that also makes it a good find.

Big Week: The Biggest Air Battle of World War Two • This is a great topic to read about, also a recently published book.

Poland, 1946: The Photographs and Letters of John Vachon • First-hand accounts are something I really like to read, and the photos are extremely professional and come from one of the more tragic locations of the war. There’s no shortage of tragic locations in World War II, of course, but Poland is definitely one of them.

Ray Donovan: Season One • I watched all of these online a few years ago, it’s something along the lines of The Sopranos. I doubt I’ll find the rest of them at a thrift, but this is a start.

032523 • Thrift Store Finds

Guderian: Creator of the Blitzkrieg is one of those books that, if I’m correct, came from a military book club. This means that I’d never see this again at a thrift unless I was very lucky, based on the fact that I have never seen it before, or I’d have it by now.

Vietnam: The Secret War • I have plenty of books on Vietnam, and was going to pass on this one, but upon opening it… well, it’s a worthy buy. I have to stop opening these books.

Aces Against Japan: The American Aces Speak • I really like books that have the actual stories from the people who lived them.

The Day the Red Baron Died • The arial battles of World War I are fascinating, as is the Baron.

300 • Troy: Director’s Cut • Alexander Revisited: The Final Cut • I have been eying this for a few weeks, and finally got someone to help me get it out of the display case, which is tough to do on a Saturday. I already have 300 on Blu-ray, and Troy on DVD, but this is the uncut Troy, and I get the Alexander movie tossed in as part of the deal. I don’t think Alexander will be a great movie, but I’ll at least take a look since this kind of epic doesn’t happen too often, especially lately. At only two dollars, this was a great deal!

I was going to get The Grey and Mad Men: Season 5 on Blu-ray as well, but they were missing discs. Boo! At least I have them on DVD.

They Just Don’t Die

One of the many, many reasons I’m not a fan of modern Star Wars, (with a few exceptions) is that the only Star Wars characters that died, yet came back, were Yoda, Ben Kenobi, and Anakin, as Force ghosts. There was a set rule, or reason that they could, and that was limited as they didn’t just come back as a character that could go on more adventures, they were there only to advise, and disappear. Because they had died. Because dying was something that was taken seriously by the writers.

But now, in the post-Lucas Star Wars era, killing a character is a cheap trick to get some drama into the script, because the writers have no idea how to write a good story. Here are all the characters I could think of that have died, yet came back: 

Palpatine – They couldn’t make a better bad guy, and Snoke didn’t work out, so…

Leia – Blown into the vacuum of space… nope! Just floats on back, she’s amazing!

Rey – How romantic. And odd that nobody ever used the Force in this way before.

Chewbacca – They’d never actually kill the Walking Carpet.

IG-11 – Blown up while in a river of molten lava. But he’s coming back somehow.

Poe – He… didn’t make it. Wait, there he is!

Ahsoka – Time travel. They use time travel in Star Wars now.

C-3PO – They’d never really kill Goldenrod.

Fennec Shand – Predictable, but it happened.

Han Solo – Force Ghost. This means that now, any non-Jedi can return as a Force Ghost.

Darth Maul – How? HOW? He was cut in half and fell into a bottomless pit!

Boba Fett – Why not, everybody else comes back.

Two characters in Kenobi take a lightsaber to the body… and they are fine.

Snoke – Wasn’t worth bringing back.

030423 • Thrift Store Finds

Finally landed a hockey jersey at a thrift! There is some yellowing on the “19” that is also ripping off, but I know where to get that fixed.

The Author of Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory mentioned in her intro that she had been contacted by many high-profile shows so that she could debate holocaust denyers, but she said “no” to all of these offers because just giving them a platform was giving their argument a level of merit that it didn’t deserve. In so many cases, this can be used to exclude views that need to be heard so that people can make good decisions on a topic, say, this candidate for president is the right choice, or not, but here, she’s right. Some things are proven fact, and this is one of them. Some things are not about “my truth” or a person’s “point of view”. It’s like debating someone who is of the view that Hitler was a nice guy. That is ridiculous, so don’t give them a forum for people who might be susceptible to such things.

She also details how this mentality began in World War I, when some scholars were in denial of Germany’s role in starting that war. There are all kinds of ways to look at how the war started, but Germany was no angel in it by any means. The Schleiffen plan, for example. That isn’t drawn up by military planners because they didn’t want to conquer their neighbors.

This is a link to Google Books so that you can give it a look for yourself.

I had to wait a week, but these two Blu-rays were still there, so I picked them up at half-off!